Each year, draft day becomes somewhat of a second Christmas for NFL teams and their fans.

Yesterday, the Jets gave themselves and their expectant fans a little gift. It came by way of a small package – 5-foot-91/2, 185 pounds to be precise – but it very well could pay gigantic and immediate dividends.

Santana Moss is his name and big plays are his game.

The Jets had the dynamic Miami receiver and punt returner targeted all the way and they weren’t exactly coy or shy about it in the days leading up to the draft.

And so, even when the receiver-needy Redskins passed up on Moss and picked Clemson receiver Rod Gardner at No. 15, the Jets were far from complacent in assuming Moss would fall to their first-round spot at No. 19.

So they acted quickly and traded up with the Steelers at No. 16 and made Moss theirs – immediately upgrading their thin and unproven receiving corps and injecting life into their nonexistent punt return game.

“There was some fear that some people behind us would trade up ahead of us to get [Moss],” Jets’ GM Terry Bradway said of his decision to give the Steelers a fourth and sixth-round pick in exchange for the first-round upgrade. “This was the guy we wanted and we did what it took to go get him.”

It was an admirable move by the Jets and a no-brainer pick.

With their second-round pick, the 49th overall, the Jets chose Maryland RB LaMont Jordan, a somewhat enigmatic back who’s sometimes played like a first-round talent and other times looked like a player who lacks motivation.

The Jets consider Jordan an immediate backup for workhorse Curtis Martin, who’s been plagued by late-season slow-downs the last couple years.

In the third round, with the 79th overall pick, the team selected Penn State OT Kareem McKenzie (6-6, 327).

Moss, though, is the gem of this draft for the Jets – the new toy the coaching staff is giddy to see on the field.

Barring the off chance that Moss, who’s a mature and well-grounded athlete with an 11-month-old son, isn’t as advertised, he will do nothing but immediately improve the Jets, who were 27th in the NFL last season with a 7.3-yard punt return average and whose top two receivers were running backs.

In his senior season, Moss returned 36 punts for 655 yards (an astounding 18.2-yard average) and he took four back for TDs. In his last two seasons, Moss has returned six punts for TDs.

The Jets have had all of two punts returned for TDs since 1990 – by Leon Johnson in 1997 and by Terance Mathis in 1990.

As a receiver, Moss, despite being slowed for some of the season by tendinitis in his left ankle, caught 45 passes for 748 yards and five TDs.

In his junior season, Moss caught 54 passes for 899 yards and six TDs and returned 33 punts for 467 yards and two TDs. As an indication of how good Moss was in college, he has his best games against the Hurricanes’ toughest competition. He torched Florida State for nine catches for 180 yards and two TDs in ’99.

That makes Moss one of the most dynamic, game-breaking players available in the first round, and the Jets could soon find out how fortunate they were to have gotten him at No. 16.

Moss, who promised to “show” his “electricity” to the Jets and their fans, also said the Jets won’t sorry for trading up to get him.

“I thought I’d be there at 19, but [the Jets] really showed a lot of confidence in me by trading up for me,” Moss said. “I’m telling them that they won’t be mad for doing it. Believe me, they won’t be.

“I believe I can come in there and make a big impact [as a punt returner] right away,” Moss went on. “A lot of people underestimated me growing up. I heard a lot of things about my size, and that motivated me to become the player I am.”

Said Herman Edwards: “Look at the level of competition he played against. It was among the toughest in the country, and he was always one of the best players on the field. The first thing you ask yourself about a player like this is, is he fast? Then you ask, is he special?

“He’s special. He can score from anywhere on the football field, which is something unique.”

There will always be detractors who say Moss’ size will be a disadvantage. Moss, though, has at least a 44-inch vertical leap and his former coach at Miami, Butch Davis, said in four years he never saw an opposing defensive back out-jump Moss for a ball.

“He’s fast,” Edwards said of Moss’ 4.37 time in the 40. “Fast is fast and it doesn’t really change. He made people miss in college and he’ll make people miss in the pros. He’s one of those guys who, when you break the huddle, is someone who [the defense] says, ‘Where’s this guy at? We’ve got to tackle this guy.’ “

As for Jordan, the 5-10, 230-pounder who rushed for 306 yards against Virginia in ’99, the Jets believe they can iron out his motivational questions and believe he’s past the academic problems that plagued him at Maryland.

“He was a little bit of an underachiever and that’s probably why he was still sitting there [at 49],” Edwards said. “That’s something we’ll work on when he comes here. He’s probably a little disappointed that he didn’t get chosen earlier. He probably feels he has something to prove.”

Jordan, indeed, said he expected to go to the Bears or 49ers in the first round and that showing those who passed up him in the first round they made a mistake “is my motivation.”

Jordan, the fifth RB taken in the draft, “I think I’m better than a couple backs who went before me. No one has ever said anything bad about my athletic ability. I have to come in there in shape and be ready and focused.”